WARNINGS FLOW AS HEARINGS OPEN ON 4 A.M. BAN

James StrongCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Chicago City Council hearings on a controversial proposal to outlaw 4 a.m. liquor licenses opened Wednesday with a warning that Chicago residents will vote more precincts dry through local option referendums unless there is reform.

One witness, a Near North Side resident, warned that angry voters may vote dry the entire 42d Ward, including its Rush Street nightclub and singles bar area, if taverns are allowed to continue operating until 4 a.m.

Another of those testifying, Arnold Morton, owner of Arnie`s and other restaurants, who said he does not favor a law barring 4 a.m. licenses, nevertheless argued that such a measure may appease voters who threaten to banish all taverns from their precincts.

''Those people know how to vote a precinct dry, and they are going to go out and vote the entire area dry,'' Morton said.

Supporters and opponents of the 4 a.m. license ban blamed a major source of the problem on poor enforcement of liquor laws by the city`s liquor commission and the police department, plus an influx of suburban youths who patronize Chicago taverns on weekend nights.

Under law, residents of any Chicago precinct can petition for a special referendum within the precinct that permits voters to determine if liquor sales should be forbidden there.

Residents in several neighborhoods, including some in the Near North Side nightclub area, incensed by rowdy drunks who create disturbances when they emerge from taverns in the predawn hours, have threatened to hold such referendums.

The hearing, by the Committee on Licenses headed by Ald. Patrick Huels

(11th), was called to consider a ban on 4 a.m. licenses proposed by Ald. Burton Natarus (42d), whose ward includes the Rush Street area as well as the nearby Gold Coast.

Linda Sievert Rapoport, a representative of some 42d Ward residents, said that if there are no changes in the law, residents could vote the entire ward dry.

The proposed ordinance ending 4 a.m. licenses is the latest by Natarus to curb taverns. Four years ago, he was unsuccessful in seeking passage of a measure enabling community residents to challenge the 4 a.m. license of a tavern with a reputation for troublesome patrons.

Among opponents of the measures, both four years ago and at Wednesday`s hearing, was James Rittenberg, a Near North Side nightclub operator and director of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

Rittenberg testified that curbing liquor sales will cripple convention business and force patrons to drive to neighboring suburbs for late entertainment.

''You are in danger of creating a blood border around Chicago,''

Rittenberg said.

He contended that fun-seekers will drive to suburbs such as Cicero where there are late night taverns and pose the same drunken-driving dangers that teenagers encountered in driving to Wisconsin before that state raised the minimum age for drinking beer from 18 to 21.

Rittenberg also said that the ban on late liquor sales will have an adverse impact on the city`s convention business in competing with New York City, New Orleans, Atlanta and Las Vegas, where nightclubs and bars stay open until 4 a.m. or around the clock.

Morton and Rapoport said they doubted if there would be a significant loss of convention business from ending 4 a.m. licenses.

''Conventioneers are too scared to come into the area,'' Rapoport said, referring to recent reports of street gangs in the Rush Street area on some nights.

City Hall insiders said the Natarus ordinance appeared doomed because of bipartisan opposition from Aldermen William Henry (24th), an ally of Mayor Harold Washington; and Fred Roti (1st) and Michael Sheahan (19th), of the anti-administration bloc.

Roti and Henry said they could not support a citywide ban on late liquor sales to alleviate a problem in one particular ward.

Ald. Clifford Kelley (20th) and sichallenged, however, as disdents alternative ordinance allowing reother aldermen have suggested an location dry rather than the entire in a precinct to vote a single precinct. The proposal has been criminatory because it would permit an individual business to be singled out for punishment by the voters.

While the committee was deliberating the late hour ban on liquor sales, Ald. Bernard Hansen (44th) disclosed that he will submit an ordinance to the city council Thursday concerning late licenses. His ordinance would require that when a bar with such a license changes ownership, the new owners would have to reapply for the permit.

Hansen also said he is considering a measure to allow a late liquor license of a nuisance bar to be revoked by a 51 percent vote of registered voters living within 400 feet of the tavern.